I have to begin by apologizing for the severe lateness of this post, this has been due to real life (mainly work commitments) getting in the way, and sadly this does not look to be letting up over the next few weeks (well probably till Christmas), so sorry if I haven’t commented, on any of your posts, I am “soooo” behind on, well everything at the moment!, but enough of my whining and on with the figures. Week three (and four) of Saga’tember as predicted by “Dave Stone” last time (he can be so annoyingly right sometimes!), has been skeleton week(s) (well the first one anyway). So along with the four “easier” skeletons I’ve also been having ago at another of the characters from the game “Mortibris” the Necromancer, and again I’ve tried to stay fairly close to the rendition featured on the character card (once again I’ve added the picture from this as a comparison).

Mortibris, I have to admit to not being overly enamored with the colours “Mantic” have chosen for the Necromancer, (I would have gone more purple or black myself), but anyway after all the figures were sprayed matt black I began Mortibris by giving him a good heavy dry-brushing with some navy blue, then another slightly lighter one with royal blue and finally I highlighted this with some bright blue. Next as his sleeves and the bottom his costume is grey, a base of dark grey highlighted with mid grey was applied to these areas (I also added his collar in this, though it’s not on the illustration). The fancy gold piping that runs down the front of his robes came next bronze with shinning gold highlights were used for these, and the same colours were used to add the details to his spell book, after the cover was painted dark red with pink burgundy highlights. Flesh came after this, European flesh highlighted this the same mixed with a lot of pale flesh used here, though the result still looks way to healthy to me, and his hair was cream with while highlights. The skeleton rising through the flooring was painted along with the others as follows…

Skeletons, Now I really wish I could say I did some incredibly clever and artistic technique on the “boney boys” but the truth is it was all pretty simple and basic stuff, I began by blobbing on some chocolate brown here and there, before dry-brushing the whole lot in coffee and then again in cream, I then went round with the matt black, and touched up any areas where the dry-bushing had strayed. Next more chocolate brown was used on the bows, scythe shafts, and belts and bags etc.., these were then highlighted with either leather brown, or butternut dependent on whether they were wood or leather. The scythe blades were then dry-brushed in chainmail, and again in rust (though it seems that you can only see the rust now!), and some details were added to the archers in bronze. The archers also need some rags of clothing, so these were added in deep bronze green, with olive highlights, dark red with pink burgundy highlights, bright blue with bright blue mixed with blue grey, for the highlights or purple with the same mixed with lavender forming the highlights. A little coffee and cream was used at the tips of the bows and on the flights of the arrows and they too were finished.

As always all the figures had their bases dry-brushed in successive ever lighter layers of dark grey, light grey and white to give there flagstones a little colour. Then were given a coat of “Quickshade” strong tone, and finally once had the usual spray coat of matt varnish to remove the gloss finish of the Quickshade. More skeletons next I’m afraid, though of a more diminutive and regal caste.

Necromancers and skeletons – lovely. Anything undead related will always attract my attention and I really like your paint jobs on this batch of figures. Even the necromancer doesn’t look too bad. As long as you stick with dark colours you can get away with most colours for a necromancer. Plus, you’ve matched the illustration very well. Good work all around, Roger.

I think you’ve done really well Rog. I find painting skellies well is a bit hit and miss for me. Sometimes I really happy with how they look and other times I think meh they look stock. You’ve nailed yours.

Great looking skeletons Roger, have a very aged look to them which I think works really well for them. The necromancer is a good representation of the artwork, even if it’s not the colours you would have chosen.

I wasn’t wild about the blue scheme , which is why I painted my Mortibris differently, but you nailed it. Looks great, even if you don’t like it!
Also, I’ve taken note of how you painted your skeletons, as I really like the look. I’ve painted about 1000 skeletons in my life and used a bunch of different methods. I’m not wild about the results I got on the ones I painted for this game, but yours look awesome. I also like the look of your bases. Mine are a bit darker. I think I might go over all of them with a white drybrushing after seeing yours.

Hey Roger, add me to the list of those who like the Blue on Mortibris (whose name evokes death and circumcision, yikes). See, blue are integral colors of both the US Naval Academy and the US Air Force Academy, so definitely as a graduate of their rival academy, the US Military Academy, I see blue as nefarious. Our colors btw are black, gold, and gray.

The skeleton bunch did well with the Quickshade for sure. Live how it made them look dirty and oxidized. As you Brits say, Cheers!

Great job here on Mortibris, even if you have misgivings on the colours used. I think the general rules is that any colour can be “evil” as long as you go with a dark enough version. Nice work on the skellingtons as well, they’ve come up very nicely. I should bust out my own DS stuff sometime, but I’m trying not to start too much new stuff till I smash a lot more of my neglected models. Hope to see a lot more of your DS stuff in October!